What exists is the one Self, not a seer and a seen

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Day by Day with Bhagavan________19-3-45 MorningA visitor from Sind, very probably Kundanlal A.Mahatani of Hyderabad, Sind, (now Pakistan) asked: "It issaid the world and the objects that we see are all unreal, likethe snake in the rope. It is also stated in other places that theseer and the seen are the same. If the seer and the seen aresame, then how can we say that the seen is unreal?"B.: All that is meant is that the seen regarded as anindependent entity, independent of the Self, is unreal. Theseen is not different from the seer. What exists is the one Self,not a seer and a seen. The seen regarded as the Self is real.V.: It is said the world is like a dream. But there is thisdifference between dream and the waking state. In dream Isee my friends or relations and go through some experienceswith them. When I wake up and ask those friends or relationswhom I met in the dream about the dream, they know nothingabout it. But in the waking state what I see and hear iscorroborated by so many others.B.: You should not mix up the dream and the wakingstates. Just as you seek corroboration about the waking stateexperiences from those whom you see in the waking state,you must ask for corroboration about the dream experiencesfrom those whom you saw in the dream state, i.e., when youwere in the dream. Then in the dream, those friends or relationswhom you saw in the dream would corroborate you.The main point is, are you prepared when awake to affirmthe reality of any of your dream experiences? Similarly, one whohas awakened into jnana cannot affirm the reality of the wakingexperience. From his viewpoint, the waking state is dream.V.: It is said only some are chosen for Self-realisationand those alone could get it. It is rather discouraging.B.: All that is meant is, we cannot by our own buddhi,unaided by God's grace, achieve realisation of Self.I added, "Bhagavan also says that even that grace doesnot come arbitrarily, but because one deserves it by one's ownefforts either in this or in previous lives."V.: Human effort is declared to be useless. What incentivecan any man then have to better himself?I asked, "Where is it said you should make no effort orthat your effort is useless?"The visitor thereupon showed the portion in Who am I?where it is said, "When there is one great Force looking afterall the world, why should we bother what we shall do?" Ipointed out that what is deprecated there is not human effort,but the feeling that "I am the doer". Bhagavan approved ofmy explanation, when I asked him if it was not so.